I can appreciate Quirky the way I appreciate Super Mario 3D World and laugh with glee at how wonderful it is… .then I go back to play Borderlands 2… and love that in a more basic way.
It’s like how I can appreciate Mozart…and say “This is a Master at work!” and then turn on Metallica in iTunes and rave about how “Death Magnetic” is the greatest thing in years.
I mean… you’re talking to the guy who wants to make animation using girls-with-guns and everything blowing up. hehehe.
But see… bias doesn’t impact appreciation. There are elements OniWorld ticks off that immediately conjure comparisons to Nintendo’s output. You decide if that’s a good thing.
Thanks! Yeah it really is exciting, I got lucky and had an old client project of mine come back to me with just enough hours that I can pay my bills while not being so overbearing that I can actually put full-time hours into my projects.
Yes, this is my third project I’ve posted about on here and while it probably gives a slight impression of jumping on the next big thing, it’s actually been a learning process of being able to determine the scope and being strategic about the implications of that within a business perspective. Soliloquy of a Madman is my child, the big grande adventure story that I want to tell, but it will require a team of very talented artists so it’s in my back pocket for now. Then I moved on to Pole Force One, with the intent to keep the scope small but I still had a project with a scope that will require a small team and since I’m not there yet, it’s in my back pocket again.
With Hextraction, I now have a dedicate partner to help build the business and we purposefully put ourselves into the mindset of creating a project with a small enough scope that the two of us could make it while interfacing with a few key freelancers. I guess you could say I’m someone with a grande vision and at a few points along the way I’ve had to give myself a reality check and recognize that while I think my ideas are awesome and I will make them… it will take time. So at the moment, Hextraction is my baby and the next logical step towards my more lofty goals.
@shrunkendesigner - I don’t have much to add other than to say that’s looking amazing, seems you’re in a very similar position as myself. Small team, a couple dedicated members interfacing with freelancers for some added bandwidth. Keep it up!
I am guilty of this sort of thing. I start something with the grandest of ambitions, realise that I’m going to need many, many years to get it to a point where I could even think about releasing it, then I decide to work on a smaller project for a while.
I think we as creatives do have a tendency to bounce between personal projects, and there is a lot of talk I’ve read online about the importance of being a finisher. I think though, we start projects that are large in scale and then have to put them on the shelf because our understanding grows, and we realise that we don’t yet have the resources, skill or extra hands to give those big projects the attention they deserve.
And you’ll learn things with Hextraction that will only serve to benefit PF1 when you return to it. Also, while not working on PF1, PF1 will be sitting in the back of your mind, simmering and cooking away and, before you know it, you’ll start having new ideas for the game, ready to be worked on when you return.
Thank you, that very kind of you to say.
Yeah, me and Sam are of the mindset that if something is important to the success of the game, like animation and music, its best to pay a freelancer to provide it.
Well, Oni World is a visual reflection of my interests, tastes and will make a lot of references to pop culture that is part of mine, and Sam’s, make up. I think I realised a while ago that Oni World is a quirky cocktail of these things and I just don’t fight the urge to put in things like the Star of Asteroth somewhere, or Milton’s Red Stapler. Oni World is what it is.
Yes, this has been my experience as well. I think the truth is that all creative people go through a period of this and you can either emerge from it having learned something which you can apply towards finishing your first project, or you give up and leave the project planning to someone else. Both results are fine, but for the entrepreneur (IP creators), you learning from it is crucial.
My personal takeaway is that yes, I absolutely need to follow through and finish a project. However, I feel that the dozens of un-finished projects I have sitting on my computer have incredible value. To me, starting a project and not finishing it has been (aside from learning how to scope a project) and opportunity to explore my own creativity and figure out which ideas had worth, value and were ones I could spend years working on it and which ones were not.
We’re actually planning to build this creative exploration process into my company’s culture where we will have a regular rotation of both staff and interns working on “throw away” games as part of the One Game A Month initiative. The idea is to give creative freedom to people to explore while getting paid and over the course of a year, 12 small tech demos will be the result. Chances are, one of those is going to have value and we’re going to want to explore it further.
However, first I need to get some practice following through and actually releasing a title! I’ve finished plenty of big projects for clients, but releasing a game to the public is a huge beast I need to conquer first. Which is why we’re focusing on Hextraction right now!
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
3 Kaiju on a journey through dimensions trying to stop a rogue “power ranger” trying to break the 4th wall and the tale of a young mans journey to become the worlds best suit actor
WHAT WENT RIGHT:
I was inspired by a book called Anomaly. Check it out folks!
I have also been able to start my Kickstarter and it is live.
Scott over at The Dreamland Chronicles gave me a shout out which was
Cool because I’ve been following the Dreamland Chronicles or years.
I still need help on promoting it. Hey Pyke you’ve ran a successful campaign, any advice? Or mind sharing the wealth j/k about the last part. Unless you want to and then I’m not kidding. Lol.
Here it is if anyone interested.
Oops nevermind. I forgot it was forbidden to post kickstarter stuff.
Sorry. It is so hard these days to promote when no one allows it but rules are rules.
WHAT WENT WRONG:
Slow start
SHOW AND TELL
I’ll have more cool stuff next time.
grantmoore3d, shrunkendesigner,
I agree. I myself have half a dozen unfinished projects . And TBH they have really helped in one way or the other in my current one. Being a finisher is a great thing, but jumping between projects can also prove to be quite valuable in long run.
I think that’s true of all the things we are able to make… It has to appeal to some kind of “basic likes” that we see in even the small things. It certainly doesn’t blind us to other things but some things we can appreciate we just cannot make ourselves.
For example, I came away from seeing THE GREEN MILE thinking it was one of the greatest films I had ever seen. But when asked: “Can you make something like that? Or would you write one like it?” I said: “No. I can’t.”
I loved THE GREEN MILE, but it is so far from all the “basic likes” that I have that I wouldn’t be able to make one whole that was like it… with the whole UTI problem and the crying, and the cruelty with the electric chair…and the horror that came after…
But the scene with the shotgun… YES! I can do that. lol.
I’ve been hearing over and over from many different places, often quoting Seth Godin in saying that, “Projects are the new CV.” If you can finish a number of little projects and get them ‘out the door’ then that looks better than starting and never finishing.
I think we all have a bit of a shared history with these sorts of things. I think we start projects and bounce to the next one very quickly earlier on in our “indie frame of mind” life. And then, as time moves on, we start less projects, but begin to focus in on something that is likely to be finished. I found I’ve done this, and now Oni World: Klank’s Story, will be the game I do that gets finished… come hell or high water.
All my other shut projects have taught me many things, and Oni World is built on those. While I still see value in some of my old projects, I’m okay with never returning to them because I feel, more than I ever have, that Oni World will get made, be it a success of not. And I want that more than anything.
Still… this hasn’t stopped me from reskinning a game I made 12 years ago and updating with my fellow OniWorlder Sam:
Project Description:
SCHIRKOA is the story (an IP maybe) I will be trying to develop in coming years.
At the moment I am aiming at an animated Short Film. Followed by a graphic novel. And then let’s see what else can come out. It’s set in a dystopian city, involves bagheads and some other ‘creatures’.
Status Number: 14
What went right this week:
Well, getting married to my girlfriend last month made me realize that I can have a normal life beyond my dark room and computer. It’s okay to talk to people and take some trips around the country and have fun. And that my personal project is not the end of the world!
Apart from that my teammates Yiming and Nico were able to finish some important primary animation work.
What went wrong this week:
Couldn’t work much past 3 weeks. That has delayed the production quite a bit. I am hoping to make that up as much as I can this month.
Show & Tell:
The 3rd main character is also done with final amendments. Her name is “White”.
*In the coming week, I will still be doing some more character tweaks for the “little whore” & other secondary characters.
Still… this hasn’t stopped me from reskinning a game I made 12 years ago and updating with my fellow OniWorlder Sam:
shrunkendesigner,
That Reskin looks quite cool! I feel that all the unfinished projects have always helped me in shaping my latest one. I always make lesser mistakes and better artistic choices in each recent one. Thanks to the unfinished ones
CGIPadawan,
I think it would make a nice poster idea…
Yes it would. Look for it in the final film. I hope Shia wont sue me for plagiarising his public appearance.
I’m actually kind of surprised you all agree with the general sentiment on unfinished projects. I guess I’ve heard too often that “just finish it” is a better option, whereas I’d rather drop a project that isn’t working than force it to completion. However, I think the one thing we can all agree on is that at some time we all have to finish one of them, which is why we’re all here I think
@redCigarette - Congratulations! I think of all the things in this thread, what you said about being able to have a normal life while working on this stuff is what we should all take away. I myself started to find myself working non stop on things and had to take a step back. Projects will always get worked on, it’s not the end of the world to have some fun every now and then too.
We’ve been working really hard, pulling together all of our brainstorming concepts and ideas and have finalized a set of features for the game and are now building them out as quickly as possible for a tech prototype. I’ll share a quick short-list of the key selling features, please feel free to ask questions to make comments, I’m just starting to practice my pitch on this one. Right now it’s kind of a collection of “features” that I need to nail down further…
[ul]
[li]Command a crew of 8 units, each with their own unique background, character and attributes
[/li][li]Player units can build, repair and deconstruct towers. They can also fight enemies but are relatively weak such that combat is not their primary focus
[/li][li]Once a crew member has died, they are gone for the rest of the game
[/li][li]Randomized story elements occur on each “tile” you choose on the map. There will be varying degrees of probabilities ranging from common battle to stumbling upon a brutal boss fight or discovering awesome ancient alien technology
[/li][li]3 Tower Classes: Attack, Defend & Resource Extraction
[/li][li]Procedural generated maps, every game you play will be unique.
[/li][li]Environmental effects such as earthquakes, asteroid impacts and volcanic eruptions add increased levels of difficulty
[/li][/ul]
Show & Tell
My partner Neil has been working on blocking in the procedural generated map, path finding and implementing some basic fog of war. Here he’s showing off some of it. It’s just placeholder blocks right now, I’m working on the basic version of the art right now.
And here you can see an early mockup attack tower with some logic built in. The idea was I wanted them to just work based on whatever enemy they get assigned and the distance that enemy is from the tower.
I haven’t been posting too much as not too many new things are happening as of the moment. I have been seeing some really nice work posted here and I hope one day to be able to contribute again. Completing an IP is a great feeling regardless of the outcome, and in the meantime I have been learning Unity and possibly going to dive into a little Unreal Engine 4. I am looking forward to seeing the final products that you guys come up with.
I only news that I can really share as of the moment, and I might be able to do an official project update here shortly with more things added, is that our game Blaster X HD made the Autodesk Media and Entertainment Game Show Reel of 2014! We are really happy and it is a humbling feeling for our 2 man team to be included among some of the industry’s best.
Well, things have been very busy here at Oni Works. To update you all my fellow IPers, me and Sam took a break from the Oni World: Klank’s Story game and have finished the reskin I was talking about in an earlier post. I say finished, we’re officially in BETA with it and have been testing it on Android devices.
And thats not all, if you have a large monitor (we’re working on a scaling trick for smaller desktop screens), you can play the BETA version in your browser right now.
